The morning came in the 58th squadron's barracks. Everyone was awake now and cleaning up. Coop was making up his bunk and Ender was standing close by, unwilling to let Cooper out of his sight. As he stood there in nothing but the jury-rigged hospital gown and shorts, which were more like pants, Ender shivered uncontrollably.

"Here," Coop said as he searched through his footlocker and finally produced a sweatshirt which he pulled over Ender's head. When he looked down at Ender, Cooper couldn't help but chuckle, the sweatshirt nearly came down to the floor on him. Ender simply glared at Cooper and shifted his weight, minding his wounded thigh. Finishing up with his bunk, Cooper sighed and sat down to pull on his boots.

A knocking at the door commanded everyone's attention just as Cooper finished with his boots. A moment later the door of the barracks swung open to reveal Colonel McQueen. Everyone quickly snapped to attention in the presence of their commanding officer, Ender just stayed where he had been sitting on Cooper's bunk, glaring at McQueen.

"As you were," McQueen commanded. "Hawkes, why is the boy here, and not in the infirmary, like he's supposed to be?"

Cooper swallowed, "Well, sir, around 4am a big load of wounded came into the infirmary, and I didn't think the kid needed to be seein' that kinda stuff. He'd probably be more scared than he is already, sir." Cooper stood there, prepared to be berated for disobeying, but it didn't come.

McQueen studied Cooper for a moment, then decided better of yelling at the man. "The Doc wants to see the boy."

"Ender, sir, his name is Ender," Shane added quietly.

McQueen simply raised his brows for a second before leading the way to the infirmary. The walk to the lower deck was short and quiet. As they were descending the last stairway to the medical deck though, Ender felt a sharp pain, as the nearly healed wound in his thigh was ripped open again when Cooper jarred him. Still, Ender said nothing as the blood gushed from his leg, soaking his bandage. Finally, they entered medical and Cooper sat Ender down on an exam table in the back. Unfortunately, Cooper sat him down, on his injured side, sending white-hot bolts of pain through his leg. Ender even winced a little.

"What's wrong?" Cooper asked with concern. In answer, Ender rolled over on his other side and pulled the fabric up from his leg and revealed the bloody bandages. Of course, the doctor walked in at that exact moment and started swearing under her breath.

"What happened?" Simms asked, sounding none too pleased. Unbandaging Ender's leg only served to anger Simms even more. "All of his stitches are ripped!"

Heaving an angry sigh, Doctor Simms left the room and came back a few minutes later with some medical supplies. After she cleaned up the blood and used some disinfectant, Dr. Simms brandished a needle and some plastic stitching. Without even thinking twice, the doctor began to sink the needle into Ender's leg. Though he barely even changed his expression, Cooper, and even McQueen, could tell that Ender was in a world of hurt.

"Doctor, I think that you need to give this boy something to numb the pain before you do something like that. He may not be able to tell you that he feels pain, but he is human," McQueen stated coldly.

"Oh God! I'm sorry," Dr. Simms said when she was snapped out of her anger and frustration by the Colonel's harsh words. "I'm so sorry, I just have been unraveling lately, I'm such a bitch. Here," she said as she put a shot of local anesthetic into Ender's leg. "The damn bureaucrats have once again cut the budget for medical supplies and staff, in favor of more guns and bullets. I'm working with not enough bandages, nurses, and more than enough wounded. And, on top of that, I've been on this shift for 36 hours straight," Dr. Simms blurted out as she tested to see if Ender's leg was numb yet. "Feel anything?" When Ender shook his head a little, Simms began to gently sew the wound closed again. "I can't believe that I'm even using stitches for this, if we had some of the latest technology I could probably just heal this in a few minutes. Of course most of that is patented by Aerotech, which means that I'll never get my hands on it. The way they price that kind of technology, the people that really need it the most can't get their hands on it either. Then add the fact that, excuse me for speaking so frankly sir," Simms said, looking toward McQueen, "the military big-wigs and cheaper than my crazy uncle Joshua, who thinks the leprechauns are out to steal all his money." By the end of the doctor's exhausted tirade, she had finished stitching up and bandaging Ender's leg. After checking his vitals and a few other things Simms said, "Look, I'm really sorry about that, I honestly didn't know what I was doing. Think you can forgive me kid?"

"His name is Ender," McQueen said, "and he doesn't seem the type to hold a grudge."

Giving him a grateful smile, Simms told them that they were done there.

"Doctor, go get some rest, that's an order. You're no help to anybody like this," McQueen said as he led Cooper and Ender out of the infirmary.

It took only a few minutes to reach their destination, a conference room. Commodore Ross greeted them at the door and explained that they were having a very confidential meeting of the higher-ups that were trying to figure out what to do about Ender. They all sat down, Ender in Cooper's lap, and the view screens turned on revealing a few fat generals and a very suspicious looking man, who didn't introduce himself.

"What exactly are we dealing with here Ross?" one of the fat generals, Gen. Holton, asked as he eyed Ender.

"We're still not sure, sir. The boy has yet to speak, and we've come up with nothing, through the grapevine," Ross answered truthfully.

"Colonel McQueen, what are you thoughts on this?" another of the generals, Gen. Bender, inquired.

"Sir, I believe that this is not a good situation. This boy has an extreme intelligence and it appears that he is also been genetically altered to heal with incredible speed. I think someone's building an army, for what I don't know, but they've got to have an incredible cover if no one's caught even a rumor. I think this boy is our best chance of finding out what's going on, and putting a stop to it."

After 20 more minutes of discussion, mostly the generals arguing among themselves, the unnamed man spoke. "You will have one week, If the boy doesn't speak, we will find a way to make him talk," and with that, the meeting ended.

"Alright, I want answers. You've got one week, Ty. And this boy will not interfere with the normal operations of this ship, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," answered Cooper and McQueen.

End part 4